Part 12 (1/2)

”No, you don't. I'm doing the begging. Why can't you leave? Can you leave?”

”Not if you're walking around out here alone.”

She sighed. ”I don't mean right now, I mean permanently. As in adios, see ya,

good-bye.”

Understanding dawned on his too-d.a.m.n-good-looking-for-his-own-d.a.m.n-

good face. He folded his arms across his chest. His too-d.a.m.n-broad chest.

And he had those too-d.a.m.n-broad shoulders, too.

”And here I thought I was being a charming bloke.”

She snorted. She didn't mean to, but it slipped out.

It got another surprised look from him; he even seemed a bit affronted, so she

was glad she'd done it after all. In fact, she might do it again. Perhaps if people had done more snorting at Devin Archer earlier on, he wouldn't be so insufferable.

”I'm merely suggesting that your... services, such as they are, are no longer required. Baleweg is handling things by himself just fine.” Boy, was he. She still didn't want to think about what the next step would be now that she'd made her first connection. If she were honest with herself, she'd admit that for the first time, she actually felt as if she were doing what she'd been put here to do. She'd felt it lying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling but seeing her past.

Which was why Baleweg was still in the tower room in her house, and why she'd given her kennel hands more responsibilities so she could spend time with him in that tower room. Exploring the possibilities, and discovering the realities. About her mother, about herself.

But Archer seemed to serve no purpose at all, other than to complicate an already complicated situation.

”I believe I am handling... things, as you call them, well,” Archer said.”Wandering around my property and ogling my kennel help? Who, by the way, is a bit too young for you, don't you think?”

He laughed right in her face. ”So that's what this is? Female jealousy? I don't know why I'm surprised, but I guess I'd thought you were above all that.” He held up a hand to stall her outraged response. And he was so off the mark. ”Yes, even in my time, women still get their noses out of joint about men looking at and talking to other women.”

”In your dreams, future man.”

He was laughing again.

”Okay, fine,” she said. ”We won't talk about your penchant for teenagers.

What I was saying was-”

Before she could see it coming, he clasped his hand around her wrist-and yanked her right in front of him. There was not a breath of air between them.Let me go.There was no amused little gleam in his eyes now.”For the record, I don't have a 'penchant for teenagers,' ” he ground out.

”Generally, I have no trouble finding grown women to occupy my time when I wish them to occupy it. I prefer a partner who knows her way about. I've never

been one to understand the allure of initiating the untried.”

The untried. Talia wondered if he had any clue how close to home that remark had hit. Not that she was a virgin, but her experiences had been discouraging

enough she might as well have been untried. In fact, until a few moments ago, when she'd connected with Archer, she'd almost forgotten all about... trying.”It might interest you to know,” he went on, mercifully disrupting her thoughts, ”that we were talking about you.”

”Me?”

”Yeah. You. Your employees think you're the savior of all things fuzzy and

homeless. The old people up on the hill probably think so, too, the way they all came to your rescue. I'm surprised they all don't drop to the ground when you pa.s.s to genuflect at your feet.”

”Oh, please.”

”But if you're worried about what I am attracted to, then let me set you straight.” He moved in closer.Don't think, she cautioned herself. Don't think about him. Concentrate on something else, anything else. She didn't want to know what he was feeling.

She didn't even want to know what she was feeling.”I like a woman with curves. Ample curves that fill a man's hands. And long hair, golden bright, like suns.h.i.+ne spilled across my pillow. I like dark eyes that have a look to them that tells a man she knows what is what, and makes it clear she wants it, too.”

Wait a minute. Blond hair? Ample curves? Dark eyes with that look? Talia had never known that look, much less delivered it. Not that it mattered. Archer had just described his ideal woman as being opposite in every way from her.

Relief, she should be flooded with relief. But that wasn't at all what she was

feeling. She was feeling... empowered. Because no matter what he told her about his preference in women, women she wasn't remotely like and could never hope to be, she had incontrovertible proof that he'd preferred her. At least momentarily. She'd felt it. Firsthand.

It was that knowledge that had her turning her gaze to his, a defiant smile on her face. And maybe, just maybe, the beginnings of that look he was describing. ”Since I don't come close to fitting that description, why are you standing so close? Why aren't you letting me go?”

Archer's eyes widened in very satisfactory surprise. Yes, she could definitely